Here’s this week’s media wrap up. Please click on the publication title to read the full article.

Media

• Celebrity magazines continue to fall in sales with all but one announcing a decrease - Sydney Morning Herald
• Matthew Johns could return to air sooner than expected as a commentator after being ’stood down indefinitely’ rather than saked by the Nine network - The Australian
• The vultures are circling over Nine’s reality renovation show Home Made after the show pulled in a dismal 860,000 viewers on Tuesday night - Mumbrella

Advertising

• Online advertising increased by 14 per cent in the first quarter of this year which states people still trust or are beginning to invest in the online space - Sydney Morning Herald

Sponsorship

• NRL boss David Gallop made a point to personally write to major sponsors in the hope of them re-signing next year with an estimated $10 million worth of sponsorships on the cards - The Australian

Digital and social media

• A snapshot e-mail survey by Australia’s digital services trade body suggests that most companies are planning to increase the amount they spend on digital, despite the downturn - Mumbrella

Posted by Helen Lear

Proving that you’re never too old school to be new school, James Halliday has launched his own iPhone application.

For those who don’t know, James is a leading wine critic and vigneron whose career spans over 40 years. He has contributed to more than 50 books on wine and has had them translated into numerous languages.

What impressed me is the fact that Halliday, so we’re told, is a bit ‘traditional’ and chooses to hand write his wine reviews rather than type them into a computer.

So when I learnt about this new app at a Wine Communicators of Australia seminar about marketing wine to Gen Y, I quickly jumped on my iPhone and downloaded it.

The app is a succinct version of Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion 2009, arguably one of the most comprehensive directories of wineries in Australia. It allows wine lovers to search for wineries across the country by name or region and compile a list of favourites.

Each winery is listed with full contact details, cellar door opening times and reviews, which would come in very handy when trawling around the Hunter Valley looking for your next tipple stop. And the best thing is that its completely free.

So from the Stellar* team we’d like to say “good on you James” and welcome to the digital hood.

Download the new app at the Apple appstore.

Posted by Helen Lear

Is it just me or has PR been slammed more in the last month than in the last few years?  The industry appears to be copping it from all sides.  We’ve had:

• Neil Shoebridge’s AFR piece titled How to lose clients and annoy reporters.  He argues that the PR industry is awash with incompetent people and outlines his top and deady PR sins.
• Jason Whittaker’s guest post on Mumbrella titled Precious PR hacks and why they do their clients no good.  Here, Whittaker has had enough of PRs telling him how to do his job.
• Ed Charles, journalist and blogger, named and shamed a PR in this post after he and other food bloggers were spammed via a contact list of bloggers Charles published online.
• Heated industry debate, in B&T magazine and online over Brisbane agency, Publicity Queen, and their promise of guaranteed publicity.

And that’s not the extent of it. So what does one in PR say or do about all of this?

We consider ourselves an agency of smart, professional people who know the media and have good relationships with journalists.  We have, on occasion, f#*$ed up, gotten it wrong, and done dumb stuff.

There are always two sides to any story or coin and may we state that the stupid and incompetent are not just confined to the PR industry!

Rather than scrap it out school yard style, we’ve decided to outline A NEW MANIFESTO FOR PR because if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

We promise to:

1. Not be idiots or self important show ponies

2. Not pitch stupid, irrelevant stuff to media outlets, journalists or bloggers

3. Continue to comply with spam laws

4. Limit blanket distributions where possible

5. Keep a sense humour

6. Get to know the media or blog’s scope and where journalists’ interests lie

7. Build reciprocal, positive relationships

8. Play nice

9. Make PR as relevant and exciting as possible

10. Always strive to be better at what we do

11. Follow up and keep our word

12. Set a positive example

13. Educate younger staff and clients on the right way to do media relations

14. Not make claims that we can’t justify or promises that we can’t keep

15. Do our research

16. Beware of fibbers and phonies

17. Try to fix things when they go wrong

18. Be patient and reasonable in the light of differences

19. Ask and learn more about how journalists work and what they need

Like to contribute?  By all means, add to the list.  Or follow this conversation on Mumbrella.

Posted by Renee Creer